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The Specter Of Salem In American Culture, Gretchen A. Adams

Doctoral Dissertations

The specter of Salem witchcraft haunts the American imagination. No other historical event has provided such a wide range of scholars, dramatists, fiction writers, poets, and amateur sleuths with a subject that so stubbornly resists a final resolution. Although barely nine months passed from the first accusations of witchcraft to the last, those nine months of accusations, confessions, denials, trials, and executions have spawned a vast literature which for 300 years has sought to fix blame or find reason for the ordeal of the witch trials of 1692. The Specter of Salem in American Culture examines this persistent interest by …

A Fine Group Of Fellows: Civilian Advisors, Eisenhower, And National Security Planning, Valerie Lynn Adams

Doctoral Dissertations

When President Dwight Eisenhower took office in January 1953, he was immediately faced with the challenges of the cold war. Throughout his two terms Eisenhower was forced to adapt to political changes within the Soviet Union, the advent of the hydrogen bomb, the development of ICBMs, and the dangers of radioactive fallout. Constantly facing new threats and fears in a rapidly changing technological world, Eisenhower often had to rethink certain security issues and make critical decisions. One tool which Eisenhower used to help him in his decision-making process was civilian committees.

Historian Richard Immerman recently wrote, "Eisenhower unquestionably valued civilian …

"In Passion And In Hope:" The Pilgrimage Of An American Radical, Martha Dodd Stern And Family, 1933--1990, John Francis Fox Jr.

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation explores the literary/political pilgrimage of Martha Dodd Stern (1908--1990), an unusually promising writer. Using Martha's writings, government intelligence files like the Venona Transcripts, I develop a narrative and analytic family biography to analyze the faith of this leftist and develop a typology of the fellow traveler that shows its roots in the Progressive Era and their radicalization under the Great Depression and growth of fascism.

Martha's father, historian William E. Dodd (1869 to 1940), imparted to Martha his Wilsonian progressivism and resentment of social distinctions. Martha's experience in Nazi Germany (1933 to 1937) radicalized these roots. She placed …

War, Reform And State -Building In Brazil And In The United States: Slavery, Emancipation And Decision -Making Processes In The Paraguayan And Civil Wars (1861--1870), Vitor Izecksohn

Doctoral Dissertations

The present dissertation undertakes a comparative-historical analysis of the impact of the American Civil War and the Paraguayan War on the American and the Brazilian populations. It investigates how both war's dynamics interfered with the social orders existent in both countries. It underlines the impact of recruitment to show how the pronounced growth of each national state during wartime interfered with the lives and customs of the populations subjected to the draft.

War mobilization is always a dramatic event in any society. Increasing government intervention during wartime normally leads to a temporary invasion of local prerogatives through recruitment and mobilization. …

Juggling With Three Identities: Ideology Of Yugoslavism Among The American Serbs (1900--1993), Vladimir B. Pistalo

Doctoral Dissertations

During the late 19th century and throughout the 20 th century, three waves of Serbian immigrants left the constant political flux of the Balkans to arrive in a constantly changing America. This dissertation examines how the political changes in the mother country and in the United States influenced the self-identification of each wave of immigrants as Serbs, Yugoslavs and Americans. I draw upon oral histories of Serbian-American intellectuals, Serbian language newspapers in the United States, immigrant memoirs and literature, and secondary sources in both Serbian and English to document the construction and reconstruction of Serbian, Yugoslav and American identity.

Before …